The industry of hospitality is always changing year after year. However the trends that are taking the industry by storm is the eating healthy craze as well as the new generation sweeping in. Putting this together and you need to provide a unique customer experience to keep those customers returning again and again. We break down each of these trends further below as each one is making changes at a rapid rate.

The New Generation Sweeping In

When it comes to the hospitality industry, Millennials are an ever growing part of it. Millennials are willing to pay a little more when it comes to providing a greater experience. Their natural desires are usually a gourmet experience but reasonably priced as to not scare them away. To see this new trend in action many hotels are using lobby bars to attract Millennials. These lobby bars and hotel restaurants are not only very open and spacious but offer an atmosphere where they can relax and have a good time.

This emerging customer segment also is fond of using technology throughout their daily lives. They prefer to do things digitally rather than manually (here is a webinar that explains this perfectly). For example this could be simply checking in at a hotel or paying the bill at their local restaurant or bar. Now if your business lacks the tools for Millennials to use you may end up with them going online and using social media to express how they felt about your business. Some will hop onto Yelp to rate or be on Twitter to tell their followers what is good and what should be avoided.

Top Notch Customer Service

Providing the best customer service will always be a trend for the industry. But instead of just being courteous to customers it is going beyond this. Providing tools for customers to look up information on the go will appeal to many people. This can be done by providing an app for example or designing a website so it is mobile friendly. The only way to ensure repeat business you need to create an impressive experience for guests that will make them want to return again. When you start meeting the needs of customers such as the trending “healthy eating” by providing healthy food you will see repeat business begin to come in. The last thing you want to do is become uninteresting to your customers simply because you don’t meet their needs for food and technology.

Staying Healthy and Dining Out

We all can see that eating healthy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are becoming very popular in today’s society. The need for certain kinds of foods will always drive customer decisions. You can get an edge on this change by offering healthy food options to interest potential customers. There have been attempts to create healthy vending machines that would house detox salad instead of the traditional candy bar. There has been some positive feedback for these vending machines but other foods still rank number one. The Marriott burger is a popular choice among customers. Here is a video from Markus Rothkranz where he talks about healthy options for dining out:

The younger generations are seen as wanting an atmosphere that both promote healthy food and food that simply tastes good. Just providing healthy food will not be enough when it comes to attracting and keeping customers. You must ensure that the food is fantastic among the competitors. Not everyone will be interested in a detox salad so you might be better off by offering something that is a little more familiar with the audience. A simple salad never hurt anyone!

New Innovative technology

To wrap these three innovations up there is one more movement happening in the industry to discuss and that is new technology. As technology gets better at connecting us with the information we need, a better experience when dining out is the result. Mobile apps are a huge success in connecting with the customer and allowing them to keep up to date on new things going on in your business. When a customer downloads your app they are more likely to come back again as they are reminded of your business when using their mobile devices. Another new piece of technology is checking in at a hotel by just using your phone. This provides ease when staying the night at a hotel.

Wrapping Things Up

With the industry changing year after year it can be seen that a more interactive experience with top notch food is what will be driving this industry forward. Not taking action on these changes could be devastating to the future of your business.

The gadget, called ImmunoFlow, is only the size of a personal stereo and can deliver test results within 15 to 30 minutes. Currently, it can take food inspectors up to seven days before they get results because it takes at least 24 hours for any bugs from a sample to grow on a plate.

To begin with, the device will be used by food processing companies, but because it’s so small and light it could ultimately be used by health inspectors to conduct on-the-spot checks in restaurants and other food outlets.

Bart Weimer, the inventor and microbiologist at Utah State University, told New Scientist that the time saved by using the gadget could prove critical when investigating a food poisoning outbreak. “We can now detect bacteria more easily and with better sensitivity than existing commercial tests.”

With ImmunoFlow, investigators put a sample of the suspect food or drink into a testing chamber where glass beads, each coated with millions of antibodies, stick to the kind of bacteria that the food is being tested for.

By then adding another set of antibodies tagged with luminescent markers, which bind to any antibody-bacterium complexes, the investigators can tell whether the food is contaminated.

According to Mr Weimer, this process makes the device much more sensitive because in the past investigators had to rely on bacteria diffusing through a paper membrane covered with antibodies. However, bacteria are big and bulky, and often diffuse slowly and incompletely, making the tests less accurate.

Currently, a special machine the size of a personal computer is needed to detect the luminescent glow, but Mr Weimer’s company, Biomatrix Solutions, is aiming to make smaller portable versions.

Caroline Smith de Waal, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition and food safety advocacy group in the US, said, “A rapid test such as this could decrease the number of illnesses and deaths due to food-borne bacteria. We need to monitor food much more regularly than is being done today.”